Chapter 7: The Bloodline’s Toll

​The silver dust of the shattered runic barrier still danced in the damp cave air, settling over Beta Thomas’s leather boots like falling ash. His cruel smile widened, his yellowed teeth flashing in the dim light as he stepped forward, the obsidian blade in his grip hummed with a nauseating, high-pitched vibration.

​Behind him, Elder William stood with his hands folded neatly inside his heavy velvet robes, his icy blue eyes completely void of remorse. Six massive warrior wolves flanked them, their throats rumbling with low, rhythmic growls that rattled the loose gravel around Selene’s feet.

​"I must admit, girl," Thomas sneered, tilting his head as his eyes swept over Selene’s trembling form. "When William suggested we let you starve in the Silver Forest, I thought he was being overly sentimental. But he promised me your blood would drag the young Alpha straight out of his hole. And look at that... you delivered him right into our hands."

​Selene scrambled backward, her hands slick with her own crimson blood.

​Beside her, Kael pulled himself upright. But he wasn't standing victorious. The golden light that had flared in his eyes was violently flickering, choking out as a agonizing wave of dark corruption fought back against the sudden intrusion of Selene’s magic. Kael collapsed to one knee, clutching his throat, a guttural groan ripping from his chest. His veins bulged black against his pale neck once more.

​Selene’s heart dropped into her stomach.

​It didn't fix him.

​Her blood hadn't magically cured the poison or turned her into an invincible savior. It had merely bought Kael a few agonizing minutes of breath, and the effort had left her own head spinning wildly. A sickening, icy coldness was spreading from the open cut on her left palm, creeping up her arm like liquid winter. Her vision swam with dark spots, her chest heaving as if she had just run a marathon.

​The Silver Luna magic wasn't a gift—it was a parasite, demanding her own vitality in exchange for pushing back death.

​"Did you really think a drop of base-born blood would break an ancient hunter’s curse, child?" Elder William spoke, his voice smooth, calm, and terrifyingly cold. He took a single step forward, ignoring Kael’s weak, thrashing movements on the floor. "Your bloodline was never powerful because it gave you strength, Selene. It was powerful because it is a key. A sacrificial conduit."

​Selene pushed herself in front of Kael, pressing her wounded palm hard against her thigh to stop the bleeding, though her fingers were going numb. "You killed my parents," she choked out, her voice raw, burning with a mixture of terror and unyielding fury. "It wasn't a rogue attack. You murdered them."

​Elder William didn't deny it. He merely tilted his head, a faint, condescending smile playing on his withered lips.

​"Your parents were fools who believed the Silver Lunas were meant to protect the realm," William said softly, as if lecturing a small child. "They refused to open the Vault of the First Alpha. They chose to hide the mark, to lock away the source of true power that belongs to this pack. So, your father paid the price. Your mother paid the price. And for eighteen years, we waited for the seal to manifest in you."

​"You used me," Selene whispered, the horrifying truth settling like lead in her chest. "All those years... beating me, keeping me in the dark..."

​"If you knew what you were, you would have fought us," Thomas interjected, taking a heavy step closer, raising the black blade. "Or worse, you would have bled yourself dry trying to save every pathetic low-blood in the pack. But now? Now the seal is fully awakened. The spell on the cave is broken. And we don't need you alive to open the inner chamber—we just need your corpse."

​Kael let out a fierce, demonic roar from the floor.

​Despite the black veins creeping up to his eye sockets, the Alpha drove his shoulder straight into Thomas’s knees. The surprise tackle sent the Beta crashing hard into the cavern wall, dropping the glowing obsidian knife.

​"Run... Selene!" Kael snarled, his voice distorted, two distinct tones echoing from his throat—his own voice, and a deep, guttural shadow. He grabbed Thomas by the lapels of his armor, slamming his skull into the Beta's nose with a sickening crunch. "Get out... now!"

​The six warrior wolves lunged forward all at once.

​Selene didn't hesitate. She knew she couldn't fight six transformed Alpha-level enforcement wolves in her weakened state. She scrambled toward the dark, narrow fissure at the back of the cave—a tight squeeze between two towering slabs of damp bedrock that led deeper into the subterranean mountainside.

​"Catch her!" Elder William barked, his calm facade shattering into sharp authority. "Do not let her bleed out in the dark! We need her fresh!"

​Selene squeezed her body into the narrow crevice just as a wolf’s massive jaw snapped shut inches from her heels, its yellowed fangs scraping against the stone.

​The air inside the fissure was ice-cold, smelling strongly of old wet slate, ozone, and copper. Selene stumbled through the pitch-black darkness, her breath coming in ragged, terrified gasps. Her left arm felt completely dead, paralyzed by the strange, unnatural price of using her Silver Luna magic to revive Kael.

​Every step sent a sharp, stabbing agony through her ribs where Beta Thomas had whipped her hours ago. Her mind was a chaotic vortex of horror: Kael’s father betrayed my family. Elder William orchestrated my parents' murder. Kael is dying of a curse my blood can barely pause. And I am nothing more than a key to a vault I don't even understand.

​She didn't know how long she ran, sliding down steep, slick stone slopes and scraping her skin against jagged rock faces, until the narrow passage suddenly opened up into a massive underground cavern.

​Selene fell to her knees on a floor of smooth, polished black marble.

​She gasped, pulling herself up to look around. Surrounding her were towering columns carved into the shapes of massive, ancient wolves, their stone eyes inlaid with glowing moonstones that cast an eerie, luminescent light across the vast space.

​In the center of the subterranean hall stood a colossal, double-arched door made of solid iron and star-metal, etched with intricate, swirling runes that matched the crescent-shaped mark on her collarbone.

​The Vault of the First Alpha.

​Selene backed away, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. But as she retreated toward the shadowy edges of the hall, her foot brushed against something hard.

​She looked down.

​Scattered across the marble floor were dozens of ancient, skeletal remains—decayed skeletons wrapped in ruined, dark velvet cloaks, each bone marked with black, corrupted veins etched permanently into the bone marrow.

​And lying right in the center of the remains was a leather-bound, blood-stained journal bearing the crest of the High Alpha—Kael’s father’s seal.

​Selene knelt down, her trembling, blood-stained fingers reaching for the journal. She flipped it open to the final, frantic entry, written in dark crimson ink.

​"May the Moon forgive me. The Silver Luna blood does not open the Vault to give us power. It opens the Vault to release the terror we locked inside. If my son ever reads this... kill the girl before she bleeds on the threshold."

​A cold sweat broke out across Selene’s forehead as a heavy, deliberate pair of footsteps echoed from the dark tunnel behind her.